I've posted this before a couple of years back but here's a laymans guide to what happens when we first start taking citalopram.
You take your first pill and immediately there is more serotonin, the feel good hormone available in your brain, so why do I feel crap?
The answer is receptors, at first your receptors see more serotonin available and say, Hey! there's too much serotonin here and release less to where it is needed, this is why you get side effects and feel worse.
After repeated dosing for several weeks sometimes less in some people, the receptors see this increased serotonin as normal and become desensitised, they give up the fight and slowly start releasing serotonin to where it is needed and slowly we start to feel better.
Once you begin to feel better this then feeds off itself and recovery comes.
Last year I upped my dose in the middle of March, 12 weeks later I was fully recovered. Most of the improvements came in the last month. One thing to look out for is sleep, when your natural sleep quality improves then recovery is not too far around the corner.
Thanks for this explanation. I'm on week 6 of 20 mg Cit. 10 weeks total on ssri (was on sertraline 1st) and finally my dry mouth is easing up! My insomnia is better. Now I feel tired and could sleep 14 hours! One extreme to the next but I'll take it! Interesting to know that once the sleep pattern is back to normal, recovery is close. Yay
I like this explanation, it makes sense. I also read that if you are taking it for anxiety and at the start you feel much more anxious then it’s a good indicator that it’s going to work well for you. If I go on this and on your information, I should be feeling good really soon. x
well said ,, lets hope i m on day 36 and stil anxious but littel improvement,, i pray for evrone in the group to recover from this and be happy with are lifes ,,, is not easy but one day soon we will be better ,,
I am on day 41. Ive noticed waking up anxiety has been reduced a bit. Racing thoughts have slowed. Still incredibly tired though and I’m not currently working. I ache all over.
Mark! Thank you for re-posting that. It helps me a great deal. Now I understand the process. Actually last night I slept better than I have been. I didn’t stare at the ceiling. Funny thing was I did the 5mg yesterday but this morning I went back to my 10mg. If I get to jittery and can’t sleep tonight I’ll go back to 5mg for a few days. Someone said in a post we know our own bodies and need to re-adjust our meds. I pray that everyone gets their strength and symptoms pass. You are all helping me with this process.
I’m on 30mg now Laura for last 15 days before that 20mg. Like Lois said you need to STAY on the same consistent dose for 3 months to really know if it’s the right amount. Now I’ve upped to 30 I think I need to stay here. I’ve been able to get onto an excercise bike recently and did 10km calmly yesterday fighting this exhaustion feeling that’s quite overwhelming. But excercise is a very important part of our recover... I’m yawning excessively as I write this which send jelly like tremors down my arms to my weak achy hands 😑 but it’s just the meds, I know that and it better than the panic attacks and extreme anxiety 1,000,000%. I can cope with the physical symptoms. The psychological ones are the scary and most disturbing ones which have been reduced👍
We’re together in this bro 💪 fear and racing thoughts, catastophising, feelings of doom and hopelessness are much harder to deal with than a dry mouth! When I read someone wants to come of citalopram because of something annoying like a dry mouth, I wonder about the severity of condition and their mental turmoil.
You are so spot on. It’s the inner turmoil that’s what gets me, the physical symptoms are s**t for sure but it’s the mind zap moments like your brain just paused that are scary.
Without a doubt everything that I have read, and it’s a lot lol, all suggests that head meds are absolutely experienced differently for each person. One person can start on 20mg and feel no side effects (lucky gits) and the other person can start in 5 or 10 and be a quivering wreck. Only you know what you can deal with, nobody else can determine what level of uncomfortable is acceptable for you. I feel much calmer today. I considered dropping to 5mg but will stick at 10 for the moment.
Coming off Paxil was the worst experience of my life. I truly thought I was going insane. And that my brain was permanently broken. The power of these ssri drugs is not be taken lightly and when I see people jumping up and down on their doses I wonder if they realise how risky a thing this is to do. If you adjust your dose u really should stay there a few months at least...
i wish it was only dry much i would be attached myslef to a tube of water ,, we fighting diffrent psychotic symptoms site effects much harder!!! Today i thout lets go for a nice walk 🌞 out there by the time i get to the door for some vitamin d IT STARTED RAIN ☔️
You know what’s helping me. I have downloaded a few wee spelling word search games. Nothing too taxing but enough to remind me I am not a cabbage and my brain does work. It’s quite therapeutic actually, helps me focus on something else. I made a ghoulash today which is cooking away and was enjoyable. I love to cook but found even that the first few days was too stressful, little steps. Hope everyone has a calm day. X
I found sertraline hard to get off, I was on it for a good few years. I was really dubious about starting back up on a new ssri but when you know, you know, some of us are just too sensitive for this world I think, we need a cushion. X